User's guide to the Menu Editor


Index


What is it?

The Menu Editor is a tool which can be used for creating a menu visually. Menu is represented here as a tree structure of menu items and menu folders. We decided to use tree structure, because this visual representation is natural for menus and allows you to control and maintain your menu easier. During your work in the Menu Editor, you can watch your menu growing in the Form Editor window.


Parts of the Menu Editor

The Menu Editor contains:


Invoking the Menu Editor

Menu editor can be invoked only using the Component Inspector when inspecting form's component Menubar. To invoke the menu editor, follow these steps:


Using the Menu Editor

So far, so good. Now we are in the Menu Editor(ME). Working with the ME should be natural and intuitive. Whole process of the work with the ME can be separated into several actions:


Connection to the Component Inspector

You will probably immediately notice that content of the Component Inspector changes as you 're working with the ME. From the Component Inspector's point of view, the Menu Editor is just another inspectable (beside the Form Editor). Component inspector shows you all menu components in the selection choice (important notice - menu items are components too!) and you can work with them as usual. The Component Inspector and the Menu Editor share and modify the same data. When you change something in the Menu Editor, the Component Inspector is notified and changes are immediatelly visible. Going backwards, when you make changes in the Component inspector, changes will affect the Menu Editor immediatelly.
Note: the CI will inspect content of the ME util you activate another inspectable (such as the Form Editor). Similarly, when you activate the ME again, the CI will forget the content of the Form editor and show content of the ME again.


Connection to the Form Editor, understanding multiple menus

The Menu Editor also can set a menu which is builded into target frame, more specifically to the Form Editor frame window. Using this feature you can watch exactly how your menu will look like. The Menu Editor is connected with the Form Editor and every change you make in the Menu Editor is refrected in the Form Editor frame's menu.
But there's one drawback: The form can have multiple menus attached. Which one is currently active we can see from the value of form's property "Menu". Value of this property is a name of the menu which is visible on the form at the time.
Note: You can see a menu you are building with the ME on the form only and only if form's active menu equals your menu that you are building.

It is quite legal to build menu which is not showed on the form. If you don't want to know, how your menu looks like in its final form, simply set form's "Menu" property to "<no menu>" value and you're done. You can work with the Menu Editor as before and the Form Editor frame will not be affected by changes.


Table of possible actions and their meanings

User action What does it mean
Up/Down key arrow pressed Moves the selection one entry up/down
Home/End keys pressed Moves the selection to the first/last visible entry of the menu tree
Mouse clicked on the entry name Clicked entry is selected
Command menu Edit/Edit or Enter key pressed Starts editing of selected entry (switches into edit mode). When already in edit mode, commits changes and switches back to view mode.
Command menu Edit/Escape or Esc key pressed Escapes edit mode and abandon changes. Works only in edit mode (does nothing when in view mode)
Commnad menu Edit/Toggle pull or Space key pressed or icon beside item's name clicked Opens folder if it has been closed, closes folder if it has been opened.
Does nothing if entry hasn't been the folder.
Command menu Creation/New menu or shortcut Ctrl+F pressed New menu folder is inserted after currently selected entry if possible
Command menu Creation/New item or shortcut Ctrl+I pressed New menu item is inserted after currently selected entry if possible
Command menu Creation/New separator or shortcut Ctrl+S pressed New menu separator is inserted after currently selected entry if possible


Restrictions and limitations

The Menu editor tool has some restrictions and limitations. Let's explain them.